PFS, hip pain/popping, ankle popping, sacral torsia, IT Band Syndrome
I am 24 year old woman. I have suffered the pains of PFS and associated problems since I was 13. However, at age 9, I had noticed perceptible popping in my ankles, they didn't hurt at that time, it only caused a little irritation. At that young age I was very athletic, skinny, tall and with pectus escavatum. I had to quit soccor and basketball at 14. I became
very sedentary after that, but knee pain continued. I started seeing a PT in Sports
Medicine. Over a period of visits I was dilligent in doing prescribed exercises. They observed an increased squatting depth before I straigtened my leg as a response to pain. The exercises prescribed were laying on my back with straigt legs then lifting them with weights wrapped on ankles, bicycle riding and swimming. I became frustrated at slow and imperceptible results, (remember I 13 years old), and quit that Sports Medicine PT.
I consulted orthopedics, a little older at this time, they said I had PFS, but didn't
explain what caused it, what it was, and no prognosis. I returned several times to
orthopedics and they diagnosed me with Condramalacia patella and Patella baja. They did x-rays, MRI, physical observation, R of M, etc. They thought that since I was having popping in the knee joints that I had a miniscal tear. The MRI, was negative for miniscal tears, and no apparent damage to the cartilagenous tissue. No abnormalities in x-ray results. Orthopedics, or at least the professionals I consulted, didn't explain why I had
popping and clicking in my ankles in hips in addition to the popping in my knee. I
subsequently went back to them at age of 19 to explain that my pain was worsening and that I also had popping and clicking in my right elbow. The prognosis was that he could do a surgery on my knee, I don't remember the kind, and it had a 20% chance of working. At this point I was very depressed because I thought there was no hope.
Still at age 19, I talked to someone who went to a rolfer who helped her TMJ. So I
called the local massage school and they said that there was a woman who did massage and a gental form of body work roughly related to rolfing, called Asten Patterning. I saw her and not only did the massage help reduce the mental exaution caused by my pain through relaxing
touch, but it helped with improving my condition. My knee caps moved to a superior position, (remember I was diagnosed with Patella Baja), and it helped reduce the amount of hyper-extention of both my knees. She gave me stretches to do, including one to make my spine more flexible. She said that I actually had a lower mobility of my fibula on the right leg. She said that after 8 months of stretches that I would be able to run again
with out pain or popping, but that I would have to continue my exercises for the rest of my life.
Running freely, never happened. So a few years went by, I consulted an Osteopath. He examined my legs and body and determined that I had sacral torcia, a tight Illio tibial band, a normal Q angle, and a patella that muscles pulled to the outside of my leg because the groove in my femur wasn't pronounced enough. I don't know what a Q angle is. If anyone knows please impart your wisdom. At a subsequent visit, I brougt my mother so that he could observe her walking in addition to mine. My mom and I are like Isotopes. We have an identical torquing movement on opposite legs of our body while ambulating (walking). She has a torquing movement on the left leg. I have an equal but opposite movement on my right.
The osteopath was the first to diagnose me with insignificant scoliosis (less than 5
degrees). He adjusted me to fix the sacral torcia. The osteopath referred me to physical therapist whom he said would be able to help me with stretching the Illio-Tibial band, and correcting my scoliosis with rigorous weight training. First of all the physical therapist tried using the Astem System where she would scrape my skin with silicone apparatii and cocoa butter along my IT band, knees and the inside of the legs. It was painful and unproductive so the PT stopped it. They couldn't find a way to get my IT band to stretch. They gave me exercises to strengthen my abdominals. They filmed my gate and said after watching the video that I may have a neurological problem. I went back to the osteopath and he said that he thought I had a neurological problem he even mentioned that I may have minimal brain damage. I asked him if Feldenkrais (a form of body work) would help. He said it would be worth a try.
I found a Feldenkrais practitioner who was a PT after calling all on a website list for the area I live in.
I went to a neurologist who looked at my eyes, asked me a question about my birth, watched me walk, and checked my reflexes. He said that I didn't have any neulogical diseases that he knew of nor minimal brain damage. I went to Rheumatology, no autoimmune disorders or interconnective tissue disorders that PT suspected from my weak muscles around my right hip.
I am currently spending about 30 minutes a day on PT exercises and seeing the
Feldenkraise/PT about every other week. I am about to start weight training under her
auspices. It took a couple of months of the PT getting to know how my body works and doing the exercises she has prescribed to me, and wearing a trochanter/hip belt before I noticed less popping. I have notably less popping in my right hip, and thus less pain than I did when I first began to see the Feldenkrais professional.
While seeing the PT/Feldenkrais, I went to a chiropracter to get a thermal-imaging report to find out if it would be a diagnostic procedure to give me the key to what is causing all the problems. Thermal imaging gives a picture reading of spontaneous heat emmitted by the body. A professional trained to do and read Thermal Imaging can tell where pain is, tight muscles and nerve problems. He said that I had sacral-illiac torsion and that my diaphram was giving me pain in my back. I had a few adjustments by him and each time I returned with the same sacral-illiac torsion. I stopped seeing him because he said that I had a weak hip created by referral of problems from the small intestine. He said my organ was struggling probably because of emotional stresses I have. So I stopped seeing him because he essentially said that my pain was all in my head. But I can say that my back felt a little better after his adjustments.
I am still in treatment. I'll keep posting when I progress in my treatment. I hope this gives professionals and individuals who share this problem some insite as to the cause. I still don't know this, but is my right femur formed differently than my left? Or is it simply a tight IT band? What causes the IT band to be tight? OR is it just weak muscles
that after strengthening I will be like a person without PFS? I've seen so many doctors and I haven't gotten a difinitive answer. What tests need to be taken for the determination of the cause of all this hip popping, ankle popping, knee popping, tight IT band, sacral torsia, plantar fascitis, PFS etc.? I believe that I have exhausted all diagnostic procedures.
Yours Truly,
Kristin
From:
temperate_3@hotmail.com
